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Poe Ballantine interviewed by Ken Jones, Host of Between the Covers, KBOO

Host Ken Jones talks with Poe Ballantine, author of the new book Whirlaway: The Great American Loony Bin, Horseplaying & Record-Collecting Novel, published by Portland’s Hawthorne Books.

Poe has published seven books and hundreds of stories and essays, many of which have appeared in The Sun magazine, along with The Atlantic Monthly and The Coal City Review. And his work has won two Pushcart Prize, and been included in the anthologies The Best American Short Stories 1998 and The Best American Essays 2006.

Poe’s memoir Love & Terror On the Howling Plains of Nowhere was adapted by filmmaker Dave Jannetta for a documentary, which won the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival Hot Doc Award, and the Big Sky Award, given to the film that best captures the spirit of the American West.

Portland writer and musician Willy Vlautin calls Whirlaway “a fever dream of my favorite things: horse racing, records, booze, insanity, and women. What a strange and crazed comedic ride. Ballantine’s writing is like no other.” And in the words of novelist Tom Robbins: “Poe Ballantine is the most soulful, insightful, funny, and altogether luminous under-known writer in America. He knocks my socks off, even when I’m barefoot.”

Hawthorne Books & Literary Arts

Hawthorne Books is an independent literary press based in Portland, Oregon. We publish good books, mostly in the American literary fiction and narrative non-fiction sections, though we're always looking for good international titles. If we specialize in anything, it's in finding superb writing which might be overlooked by larger houses, and giving it the attention it deserves. Since 2002, Hawthorne titles have been consistently shortlisted for respected literary awards. And we've won more than a few of them. More importantly, we have developed a loyal community of readers and writers.

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